On the National Stage Barrack Obama was re-elected President of the USA last night. Nate Silver of the NY Times pretty much had it right in the end with his stochastic models indicating an electoral advantage for Barrack Obama which came to fruition.The focus of the this website is local issues so here are the preliminary machine vote results for the Hoboken Questions 1-3 and School Board Elections. There are still a number of absentee and provisional ballots so the results will not be official until the end of the week or later…

The slate supported by Mayor Dawn Zimmer has a lead going into the count for absentee and provisional ballots. It looks like honest campaigning and the endorsement of a popular Mayor like Dawn Zimmer certainly helped on the machine vote.

Public Question 1 – Eliminate Runoff elections

Voters decided in favor of elimination runoff elections 60% to 40%.

Public Question 2 – Vacancy Decontrol – Rent Control

Voters narrowly decided to not adopt changes that would have led to vacancy decontrol for buildings with 1-4 rental units 52% to 48%. We will have to wait and see if the absentee and provisional will make a difference in this close outcome.

Public Question 3 – Move Elections to November

“Let the people decide” and decide they have. Hoboken residents overwhelmingly passed this 78% to 22% which moves municipal elections to November. The Mayor’s race will now be November 2013 instead of May.